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| A suddenly and inexplicably popular item acquired last session |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 12/09/2024, and the PCs adventured for 2 days.
Player Characters Present
Slippery Pete (Level 8 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)
Sever (Level 7 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)
Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles)
Sheamus (Level 6 Irish Fighter of Brovenloft, wielder of the Drewblade)
Gurt the Green (Level 3 Paladin, wielder of the Longsword+3)
Luke (Level 1 Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric)
Introduction
Some players love the Pizza Slice of Doom, while other players hate that they've been stymied at what seems like every turn. This session had something for both camps.
Downtime
The two weeks or so of downtime were spent travelling to Minas Mandalf with Prince Barin the Ranger, and his company, with a stop over in St Raul. On the way word caught up to them that Guarda had suffered an attack by Gnolls.
Session Report
The player packed their canoes once again and set off to the PSoD, there they retraced their steps (metaphorically in places), until they had reached the "bowl" area where last week they had found Prince Barin. The prince had said his men would have continued down a drain like exit to the bowl room if they had not encounter the PCs. He had also given his ring to Sever as a token of thanks. More than a token, this ring could open otherwise locked doors in the Sky City.
I have to someone shamefully admit to using the Wilderness Survival Guide for rules on Canoes.
Lifting the panel, they could see it was just as the Barin had described. Below was a channel heading west. The water there was just deep enough to use the canoes, so they lower them down and cautious began exploring. The water flowed gently in the same direction, and as they explored the water depth increased. Turning south, they soon found a landing just above the water line, with a door visible on the nearer wall. This temptation proved too much and they piled onto the landing and tied off the canoes. Using the ring provided by Prince Barin, Sever found that the door opened for him easily. The room beyond had a some trapped chests, tied to a paralysis beam firing from the ceiling. Slippery Pete failed to find it and, once triggered, a secret door opened and let in a bunch of hungry metallic beetles.
Combat #1: 14 PSoD Beetles (MM)
Rounds 2: Monsters win, Party wins.
Result: Party victory
Highlights: This trap could have been much deadlier. Even though it was set off, the party's tactic of just leaving the room and letting Sever open the chests paid dividends.
After collecting the treasure and a sample of the beetles, the party took to the water again and headed east. The passage widened and deepened and turned north, where another landing could be seen. This too had a door and the party repeated the process from earlier, this time finding nothing of interest. However, something of interest found them. I had rolled a 1 on the random encounter d6 and a 20 on the monster table. Due to the layout of the dungeon, I had already decided that any level VIII rolled would be a Purple Worm, but I never expected it to pop up right here when the party weren't even in the water.
Combat #2: 1 Purple Worm (MM)
Rounds 6: Monster wins, Tied Initiative, Party win, Party win, Party win, Party win.
Result: Party victory
Highlights: Heroics from Slippery Pete and Sever, a near death experience for Gurt.
There could be no other interpretation, the monster was IN the water, and, as the party floundered about getting ready to push on, it struck. The 50' long worm opened its maw and in went Gurt, just like that. The other canoes, paddling for a better fighting location, first had to check to see if they capsized (WSG p 45) and by some miracle they stayed upright and buoyant. With Gurt in peril would they stay and fight, or what? No, they advanced in the hope of luring the worm to a battleground better suited them. All but Slippery Pete that is, who, in a fit of heroism, dived into the water and attempted to back stab the giant purple worm. This had mixed results and he ended up with his black dagger buried to the hilt in the hide of the creature and hanging on for dear life as it pursued the rest of the party.
Now, as they were not attempting to evade (which would mean leaving Gurt for dead), but to lure the creature after them, I didn't use to the evasion rules but instead simply went with initiative; if the worm won it would move first and attack, if it moved second the fast canoes would just out pace it. On the plus side, it could not get an attack in with its tail while chasing them. The first round was tied and the monster again tried to swallow a PC, missing and also just managing not to capsize the boat that PC was in (I forget who now).
And so several rounds passed with the party on a streak of initiative win; mapping was impossible as the subterranean river corridor first passed under the section where they had begun, then turned east and widened significantly. Along with this the speed of the water also increased. Meanwhile, Slippery Pete was stabbing away from the outside while Gurt, having had the prescience to prepare a dagger by dangling it from his mouth tied to a handkerchief (!), was stabbing away from the inside; although each round he was loosing the strength to do so.
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unknown to the Paladin, he had 6 rounds to get out.
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Suddenly everything changed, ahead a waterfall was rushing towards them, spilling out over empty space into the dark, and there was no missing it! The canoes were going over, but the players chose to approach the 50' fall in their own ways. Luke leapt out of his canoe, jammed his oar into the side of the rock and hung on for his life. Giuseppe and his henchmen, along with Sheamus and McScales, all jumped clear of the canoes to splash down into the water below. All but McScales and those in magic armour now had to try and get back to the surface to breath.
But that was not the biggest issue. Of course, as well, over went the worm in pursuit of them, it didn't seem at all perturbed at doing so while Slippery Pete clung on to its back. Sever had chosen this moment to activate his Wings of Flying. These have a very limited use period, but were perfect for this situation. Next round with the other characters bobbing around and their stuff all over the place under water, the Purple Worm surfaced ready to chow down on them; the daggers of Slippery Pete and Gurt weren't going to stop it. And that's when Sever dived and let loose with Were'shbane. He chopped the creature with so much damage that I paused to calculate whether he had hit the section of the worm where Gurt was (some other MM entries specify this for creatures that can swallow their prey whole). He ended up being quite a distance away from the mighty slash, and so still had a job ahead of him to get out of the now dead monster; but soon enough he burst forth, having cheated death by seconds.
This was all pretty cinematic, but once they had scooped themselves and their loot back into righted canoes, and Sever had flown back up and rescued Luke, they had to asked themselves where the hell they were. Certainly not in the Pizza Slice of Doom anymore. After Sever had done a short survey until his wings were nearly exhausted, they realised they had passed into in the belly of the extinct volcano that the dungeon sat on. Water had come through via a break in the volcano wall and filled a large area, the edge of which Sever had not found, but they theorised could not be as far as the huge cave worm holes they had found here in the past. There was a gentle current heading south, but they chose to strike north, hoping to hug the wall of the place and work around until they reached a dry surface.
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| This information flummoxed some of the relatively newer players. |
The water was strange, driven by the varying amounts of heat from below, some sections were almost too hot to paddle through and had to be navigated around, others were cold. Aside from their trusty Continual Light stones the place was very dark, and the light attracted many small fish to the surface to gawk at them. Oblivious to the risk, they went on until a Giant Catfish was attracted to the teaming fish around them. Fortunately Sever's Ranger senses tingled in time to avoid another aquatic battle (but I probably should have penalised the chances for this due to the light situation, oh well). Later, a similar thing happened with a pair of Giant Gar, also content to feed on the small fish and not bother the party. Eventually the group struck land and hid their canoes among the rocks.
Here the session faltered, there was a puzzling situation to solve: how to get back into the dungeon; but it was totally open ended. In the end the players instead focussed on the puzzle of just how to get the hell out of there. They went east into the steamy area of the vast underground chamber, again narrowly avoiding an enemy, in this case 50 Firenewts, and continued on. They had hit upon the idea of traversing to the other side and attempting to climb up out of the steam vent that they had reason to believe led all the way up to the ears in Mel Gibson's head (it's a long story). I wasn't going to rule out the method, but it wasn't going to be a quick or easy process, even with Sever's strength belt doing a lot of the work.
Finally they decided on an alternative plan, rest long enough for Sever to be able to use his wings again, then he could (hopefully) fly up out of the chimney like structures into the cyclopean city above, from there he could cross to the Irish outpost, get Convess and fly back to pull them out one by one. The night passed uneventfully in a miserable cold camp. Sever flew out to the surface above safely, but had to walk most of the way across to the Irish camp, at one point narrowly avoiding a shapeless horror moving about the ruins of a many cornered building.
United once again with the Pegasus, the remainder of the rescue was time consuming in game, but eventually the rest of the party were ferried back to the Irish camp, with Giuseppe holding the fort until then.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 6 Miles
Mapped Dungeon area traversed: 1600 ft
New Dungeon corridor mapped: 270 ft
New rooms mapped: 2
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 8
Total time in the Dungeon (approx): 4 Turns
Treasure and XP
Trollopulous Adjusted Session 85 (Machodor #45)
Treasure & Items
3500gp
Beetle carapace
Purple Worm stinger
Monsters
14 Beetles 300 XP
1 Purple Worm 6120 XP
1 Giant Catfish Evaded
2 Giant Gar Evaded
54 Firenewts Evaded
1 "shapeless horror" Evaded
Total 6420 XP
9920 XP & 3500 GP Assignment
Slippery Pete (Level 8, E) 1322 XP & 467 GP
Sever (Level 7, E ) 1322 XP & 467GP
Giuseppe (Level 7, E) 1322 XP & 467GP
with henchmen Bishoy and Tawadros (F4, E) 661 XP & 233 GP
Sheamus (Level 6, E) 1322 XP & 467GP
with McScales (Level 2, E) 661 XP & 233 GP
Gurt the Green (Level 3, E) 1322 XP & 467GP
Luke (Level 1, E) 1322 XP & 467GP
Graveyard
Pleasance (Footman level 0), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Siegward (Henchman Fighter Level 1), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Tawadros (Henchman Fighter Level 4), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Patria (Footman level 0), killed by a two headed snake bite in session #81
Deltacron (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 1/1), threw his last flask of oil at, and was level drained to death by, a Vampire in session #76
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Red (Paladin Level 1), always popular with the ladies, he was eaten up by a female Roc in the Pizza Slice of Doom during session #67
Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43
Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe in the head in session #39
Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2) Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39
Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39
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